The present inventor has a demonstrated history of inventing devices that popularize, demystify, and make the art of animation accessible to the general public. Indeed, a plurality of those developments have achieved not only substantial commercial success but also patent protection in the United States and elsewhere. Among those patented developments are the Manually Operated Moveable Display Device disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,484 and the Visual Display Device with Continuous Animation taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,873. Furthermore, the present inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 7,151,541 protects a Moveable Animated Display Device, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,132 is directed to a Rotatable Animation Device. Still further, the inventor participated in the inventions of U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,233,099 and 8,582,063 for a Temporary Birefringent Color Image Apparatus and Method and for an Optical Toy. Yet further, U.S. Pat. No. 8,373,842 teaches a Praxinoscope Kit and Assembly Method. A Stroboscopic Animation System is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 8,482,714. Each of these has usefully advanced the art of display and animation.
Even with these and further developments in the art, it has become clear to the present inventor that there remains a need for a system and method that permits a user to create animation in three-dimensions, and that need is even more apparent with respect to persons with minimal artistic ability. By way of example, the inventor has appreciated that permitting realistic animation in three-dimensions without requiring the artistic ability typically demanded by the known prior art will enable unparalleled creative opportunity with the potential endless creation of new animation sequences.
By way of further background, it has been established since the inventions in the mid-1800's of the zoetrope, the praxinoscope and similar early motion picture devices that a series of drawings, each a little different, printed on a paper strip and arranged around the drum of such a device can create the illusion of realistic human or animal locomotion when the device is spun. The fascination with such devices persists today. Toy versions continue to be manufactured and sold to the curious public. Almost without exception, these toys include a selection of pre-printed paper animation strips for immediate viewing. In addition, they often include unprinted paper strips upon which the user is invited to draw their own animations from scratch. One problem with such toys is that the average consumer lacks the artistic ability to draw their own convincing, sequential animations from scratch. The ability of the user to interact creatively with the toy is thus hobbled. In frustration, most users set aside the blank strips and content themselves with watching the pre-printed animations. The play value and, consequentially, the sales potential for such a toy has typically been limited.
Manufacturers of such toys, including this inventor, have attempted to mitigate this limitation by furnishing faintly-printed outlines on the paper strips upon which the user can color or otherwise augment with markers and crayons. While such outlines permit the user to imprint some of their own personality upon the animation, it does not permit them to alter the animation itself or to create altogether new animation sequences of their own choosing.
With an appreciation of this, the inventor saw the need for an animation toy that would permit the average consumer to experience the joy of endlessly creating his or her own original animated sequences with ease. Moreover, the inventor came to realize that the inclusion of ready-made three-dimensional, repositionable figures in an animation toy would be preferable to blank paper strips because, as the figures would already exist, no artistic skill would be required to create them. To create convincing animations, all the user need would need to do would be to position the figures, such as by having each one posed a little differently from the preceding and subsequent figures.
One knowledgeable in the art will be aware that, since the invention of such toys in the 1800's, it has been known that a series of three-dimensional models, each posed a little differently, may be substituted for printed paper strips to deliver a more dynamic animation effect. In 1870, for example, the French biologist Etienne Jules Marey created a zoetrope containing a series of small, three-dimensional plaster sculptures of a white seagull, with its wings in different positions from pose to pose. When the device was spun, the seagull appeared to flap its wings.
Even today, many such three dimensional animated displays are created by artists. For instance, a popular example touring museums today is a room-sized, strobe-light animated zoetrope featuring the characters sold by the Pixar Company under the TOY STORY registered trademark. Because of the time-consuming effort it takes to create three-dimensional models from scratch and because multiple versions of each figure must be painstakingly sculpted, each a little differently, this delightful display and others like it are often protected from the public by a wall of glass. The museum visitor is invited to look, but not to touch.
Still, the inventor imagined a toy version containing ready-made posable figures that are specifically intended to be posed and reposed by the end user. In so imagining, though, the inventor perceived the issues that would be confronted to permit realistic, flowing animation. Problems demanding solutions included the methods by which the figures would be mounted to the toy itself and the impact on the animation effect such mounting methods might effect. Posable figures alone would not be sufficient to create a convincing illusion of animation; a series of fixed-length posts, for example, would not suffice because they would limit the animated figure's ability to change either their height or their axial orientation, both being essential visual cues to creating the illusion of realistic action.
Through rigorous experimentation and thought, this inventor has concluded that, to create a convincing illusion of lifelike animation with posable figures, the method of mounting the figures to the device is thus as important as the posability of the figures themselves. More particularly, the mounting system itself must be made to be universally positionable to facilitate, among other things, the repositioning of the physical locations and orientations of the figures.
Consider, for example, a simple ten-figure animation of a posable character jumping up and down: The first of the ten figures must be posed in a tight crouch and positioned low to the floor of the device. The successive figures must not only be positioned to have their legs extend more and more, but they must also be positioned higher and higher until, such as by the fifth or six pose at the height of the simulated jump, that particular figure, now elongated, arms up, must appear to be slightly levitated in the air, its toes positioned a distance above the floor of the device. A rigid, fixed length post would make this impossible because the end result would be rather like that of a flapping butterfly glued to an immobile stick; it would not look natural, convincing, or fully alive. Another example would be an animation in which the figure is made to dance, hopping from side to side over a fixed center point. A fixed, rigid post would not permit that. One might further consider a figure that is intended to do a black flip in the air. Not only must the first figure be positioned low to the floor of the device and a subsequent figure positioned far above that floor in mid-flip, but each figure itself must also be able to be tilted or pivoted, one pose to the next, to complete the action convincingly. In other words, for convincing animation, the laws of physics and natural movement must be observed.
From the background above, it will now be apparent that the incorporation of rigid, fixed-length posts or other fixed mounting mechanisms do not permit convincing animation. Indeed, such mounting mechanisms would actually defeat it. The inventor discovered that the real need, in addition to the actual posable figures themselves, is the incorporation of universally-adjustable posts to permit the figures to be tilted, swiveled, rotated, to be raised or lowered, or to change their center of gravity from pose to pose, thereby permitting the user to create a more convincing illusion of realistic motion.